Singapore to the fore, Twitter's ambition, Fashion disaster, Gender bender, A children's story

Singapore to the fore(FT)
"'Until two to three years ago, not much had happened in Singapore’s [fashion and retail] scene,' says Jean-Baptiste Debains, Asia-Pacific president of Louis Vuitton... But now Singapore, once regarded as Asian fashion’s frumpy step-sister, a place where steamy weather and limited retail options bred a populace most comfortable in beachwear, has seen an unprecedented flurry of developments in the fashion industry."

Twitter turns up heat on ambitions(FT)
"After overhauling the design and features of its homepage and mobile apps, Twitter is now gently turning up the heat on its ambitions as an advertising business. 'Twitter is more of a journalistic than a marketing phenomenon,' says Mark Read, chief executive of WPP Digital, the advertising group. 'If you talk to newspaper editors and people in the media, they are obsessed.' By contrast, Twitter is 'still trying to figure out' its advertising products, Mr Read says."

Fashion disaster of its own making(The Standard)"Italian fashion brand Dolce & Gabbana is notorious. It's making news headlines here and overseas for the wrong reasons this time - after its flagship shop in Tsim Sha Tsui found itself embroiled in a controversy over photo-taking. The ban reportedly applied to Hongkongers only, while mainland customers were welcome to click away."

Women cut their way into the manly world of London tailoring(The National)
"If London's historic bespoke tailoring has traditionally been an almost excessively male environment - all calculated deference, pinstripes and chesterfield sofas, with the puff of cigar smoke lingering in the air and a special, often intimate relationship between a gent and his cutter, much as between a man and his barber - then the pioneering Hall, if only for her sex, might seem out of place."

A Children’s Story(On the Runway)
"Last year Ms. Parker-Barker and her husband decided to create a children’s line, with Cameron building the site. 'I just had a hard time finding non-graphic T-shirts for our son and things that didn’t have trucks on them,' she said. She also felt that boys’ clothes looked too boxy. 'It’s that age-old feeling of ‘there’s nothing out there, let’s make something,' she said."